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Journal and News Scan
March 4, 2014
Submitted by: Joel Dunning
This is an amazing video that actually shows live evidence of clot in the vein after harvesting !
Why are we all not doing this routinely after all vein harvest ?
You must have a quick look at this
March 4, 2014
Submitted by: Tom C. Nguyen
The debate between surgeon sleep deprivation and performance continues. This study looked at complications from laparoscopoic cholecystectomies (n=94,183) in surgeons who operateed the night before and found no difference in outcomes. Although lap cholecystectomies don't translate to cardiothoracic surgery, some of the discussion points apply. Also, there is an excellent editorial accompanied the article written by Michael Zinner and Julie Ann Freischlag.
March 2, 2014
Submitted by: J. Rafael Sadaba
In this manuscript the authors report on 6 patients who underwent implantation of a MitraClip device for failing surgical mitral valve repair. All the procedures were successful with the use of a simple clip. MitraClip appears to be a good alternative in this setting.
March 2, 2014
Submitted by: Mark Ferguson
LVI is thought to be an adverse prognostic indicator of survival in patients with NSCLC. This review quantified the relationship of LVI and survival. The unadjusted effect of LVI for recurrence-free survival was HR=3.63 and for overall survival was HR=2.38. After adjustment for covarates, these HRs were 2.52 and 1.81, both highly significant.
March 2, 2014
Submitted by: Mark Ferguson
Fontan connections made using a lateral tunnel (LT) or extracardiac (EC) pathway were evaluated over time using MR. LT pathways generally increased in diameter while EC pathways did not. Normalized LT and EC diameters decreased relative to somatic growth, while descending aortic diameter increased in parallel with somatic growth. Changes in pathways over time are complex and require further investigation.
March 2, 2014
Submitted by: Mark Ferguson
The utility of dental extraction for infection prior to planned cardiac surgery is unkown. The authors evaluated the risk of dental extraction in a group of 205 patients for whom elective cardiac surgery was planned. 8% experienced major morbidity after dental extraction, 3% died prior to cardiac surgery, and 3% died following cardiac surgery.
March 2, 2014
Submitted by: Mark Ferguson
The utility of dental extraction for infection prior to planned cardiac surgery is unkown. The authors evaluated the risk of dental extraction in a group of 205 patients for whom elective cardiac surgery was planned. 8% experienced major morbidity after dental extraction, 3% died prior to cardiac surgery, and 3% died following cardiac surgery.
February 28, 2014
Submitted by: Stuart Head
Yates and coauthors evaluated the implementation of Heart Team discussions for patients with complex coronary artery disease, and determined whether the 2010 ESC/EACTS guideline recommendations changed clinical practice in this regards. Unfortunately, Heart Team discussions were infrequent pre- and post-guideline publication (9% vs 17%).
February 28, 2014
Submitted by: Ruben Osnabrugge
In this meta-analysis, the authors set out to investigate whether MV repair or replacement was better for patients with ischemic mitral regurgitation. Combining 12 eligible studies, they found that MV repair is associated with lower operative mortality, but higher recurrence of regurgitation. There were no differences in survival, functional measures and NYHA class.
February 24, 2014
Submitted by: Mark Ferguson
Using SEER data the authors compared open to VATS segmental resection in a population of pts >65 years old. Propensity score matching was used to adjust for baseline differences between the groups. VATS pts had lower complication rates, fewer ICU admissions, and shorter length of hospital stay. Outcomes did not appear to be surgeon-specific. Survival was similar between the groups.